Read
the captions by hovering over the images, and click on them to
see them enlarged.

St Peter,
Matlaske

Matlake is a long, pretty village which
lines the southern edge of the park of Barningham Hall.
No doubt most of the inhabitants worked for the
Barningham Estate in years gone by. St Peter is an
attractive round-towered church at the eastern end of the
village. It appears rather quirky, because the chancel is
missing. It collapsed in 1726, during the morning
service, according to Mortlock. Fortunately, it fell
outwards, and nobody was hurt. There is a wide south
aisle, and as a result you step through the north doorway
into an attractive square space.

At the
west end of the nave, the shingle and brick eastern side
of the tower has been exposed, which is very attractive.
Characterful corbel heads look down on a pleasingly rural
interior. Matlaske was obviously high in the
Anglo-Catholic firmament at some point, and what survives
today is devotional and seemly. The 1860s bible is still
in use, and the service book on the altar dates from the
early years of the 20th century. The altar rails came
here from North Barningham when the church
there was declared redundant.

Hanging in
front of the sanctuary is one of those big brass
chandeliers familiar from several churches around here,
but in such a small space as this it makes a dramatic
statement, evocative of those exciting days of early 20th
Century Anglican triumphalism, now out of sight.